Challenges To Books, DART Funding
HPISD’s Board of Trustees voted 5-2 in July to remove the book All Boys Aren’t Blue from the Highland Park High School library, and the memoir’s challengers have suggested that other books should also be pulled from library shelves.
“We have existing libraries, and we have a lot of bad books in them,” HPISD parent Austin Hopper told the board. “This is just the beginning. This is the first one of those books that we’re talking to the board about.”
Just three books — All Boys Aren’t Blue, The Witch Boy, and Ho’Onani: Hula Warrior — are listed on HPISD’s website as having been formally challenged. All Boys Aren’t Blue is the only book that has been removed from shelves.
But districts across the state are grappling with how to implement the requirements of House Bill 900, which prohibits school districts from possessing certain library materials, including those deemed “pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable.”
Some districts have developed detailed rubrics outlining specific behaviors that cannot be in library books at various grade levels, while others require that school boards approve all new library acquisitions, or that purchases be posted on the district website for public comment.
“All of this increases the workload on district staff and librarians,” said Shirley Robinson, executive director of the Texas Library Association, “and results in a very cumbersome process for building a library collection to serve the needs of all students.”
School districts, she said, are doing their best to implement HB 900’s requirements, but their task is complicated by vague definitions, a lack of clarity on issues such as how the rules apply to classroom libraries, and a lawsuit challenging the bill’s application to book vendors.
According to Robinson, the book controversies have taken a toll on student learning and librarians’ mental health. “In some areas, librarians have been bullied on social media, and threatened with arrest,” she said.
A pricey bus ticket
Members of Highland Park’s Town Council have expressed concern that taxpayers aren’t getting their money’s worth out of the city’s contribution to Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART.)
Highland Park expects to contribute more than $6.5 million to DART in the fiscal year that begins in October 2024. But the only service it receives in return is the operation of Bus Route 237, which travels north-south along Preston Road.
On Aug. 6, the council joined at least five of DART’s 13 member cities when it approved a resolution supporting a reduction in the amount of sales and use tax collected by DART.
University Park’s City Council tabled a similar resolution in July. The item could be moved back onto the agenda after completion of a DART value study by Ernst & Young.
